Kathleen Dorsett | Husband Degraded and Killed by Wife Enmeshed with Parents

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[00:00:33] This is True Crime Psychology and Personality, where we discuss the pathology behind some of the most horrific crimes and those who committed them from a scientifically informed perspective.

[00:00:48] I'm Dr. Todd Grande. I have a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision, and I'm a licensed professional counselor of mental health.

[00:00:57] Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:01:00] Today's question is, can I analyze the case of Kathleen Dorsett?

[00:01:05] First, I'll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis.

[00:01:11] Kathleen Dorsett was born on July 2, 1974 and lived in Ocean Township, New Jersey.

[00:01:18] She was raised with one brother by her parents Thomas and Leslie Dorsett.

[00:01:23] In 1997, she obtained her teaching certificate and found work teaching kindergarten and third grade.

[00:01:30] Kathleen became romantically involved with a man named Stephen Moore.

[00:01:34] He had been raised just south of Los Angeles and was six years older than Kathleen.

[00:01:39] Stephen was described as not career-oriented.

[00:01:43] When his mother Evelyn decided to retire in New Jersey, Stephen moved with her.

[00:01:48] Like many people who moved to New Jersey, Stephen may have had a sense that he was never going to leave the state alive.

[00:01:55] In June 2007, Kathleen and Stephen married and moved into a house in O'Courst, New Jersey.

[00:02:02] The house was owned by Kathleen's parents and was right across the street from where they lived.

[00:02:07] As Kathleen continued to teach, Stephen worked as a salesman at a Honda dealership.

[00:02:13] In December 2008, the couple had a daughter named Elizabeth.

[00:02:17] Immediately after this, Kathleen became extremely critical of Stephen and how he was treating their daughter.

[00:02:24] He was not allowed to build any type of relationship with Elizabeth due to Kathleen's overbearing and dominating demeanor.

[00:02:31] Stephen became increasingly upset and worried that he would never bond with his daughter.

[00:02:37] In October 2009, Stephen moved into his mother's residence and filed for divorce.

[00:02:43] The divorce was finalized in June 2010.

[00:02:46] Kathleen was able to secure primary custody of Elizabeth.

[00:02:51] Right after this, Kathleen's parents decided they wanted to move to Florida.

[00:02:55] This move was supposed to take place in September 2010.

[00:02:59] Their plan was to take both Kathleen and Elizabeth with them,

[00:03:03] but this was going to be challenging because of Stephen.

[00:03:06] The family was not permitted to deny him access to his daughter.

[00:03:10] To overcome this problem, the Dorset family offered Stephen financial assistance in exchange for him moving to Florida as well.

[00:03:18] They would help Stephen for six months after he moved, which would allow him to get on his feet.

[00:03:23] This way everybody would be happy.

[00:03:25] The Dorsets had what they wanted.

[00:03:27] Stephen would be able to see his daughter and all of them would be out of New Jersey.

[00:03:33] Before any move to Florida could take place, an unexpected incident derailed the plans.

[00:03:39] Now moving to the timeline of the crime.

[00:03:42] On August 16, 2010, 42-year-old Stephen Moore failed to show up at work,

[00:03:47] so his coworkers at the Honda dealership reported him missing to the place.

[00:03:51] Two days later on August 18, the police received a report of a car fire in Long Beach, New Jersey.

[00:03:59] The vehicle was a 2001 Nissan Altima owned by Stephen's mother Evelyn.

[00:04:04] After the fire was extinguished, Stephen's body was found in the trunk.

[00:04:08] He had been beaten and strangled before the fire started.

[00:04:12] Here's what the police found during the course of their investigation.

[00:04:16] Kathleen said that the last time she saw Stephen was at 7.45 a.m. on August 16 when he dropped off Elizabeth as planned.

[00:04:25] Two of Kathleen's neighbors told the police they heard screams on the morning Stephen disappeared.

[00:04:30] One of the neighbors looked out of a window and saw Kathleen running toward the back of the house.

[00:04:37] She asked what was going on.

[00:04:39] Kathleen responded by screaming, close the window.

[00:04:42] When the police looked around Kathleen's house, they found blood in the mulch.

[00:04:47] On August 23, Kathleen was arrested and charged in connection with Stephen's murder.

[00:04:53] As the arrest was taking place, Thomas emptied his pockets and gave the contents to his wife,

[00:04:59] as if he expected to be arrested as well.

[00:05:02] This behavior attracted the attention of the police.

[00:05:05] Why did Thomas think he was going to be arrested?

[00:05:08] They didn't have to wait long to find the answer.

[00:05:11] The owner of a seafood restaurant in Long Branch contacted the police and told them a story

[00:05:16] about how Thomas had asked to purchase one of the security cameras off the building.

[00:05:22] Thomas could be seen driving the 2001 Nissan Ultima, which belonged to Stephen's mother,

[00:05:28] into the restaurant parking lot near the dumpster.

[00:05:31] Kathleen was behind her father in her own vehicle.

[00:05:35] Less than an hour later, Thomas returned to the parking lot in his work van

[00:05:40] and threw a few items in the dumpster.

[00:05:42] On August 24, Thomas was found unconscious in the parking lot of his attorney's office.

[00:05:48] He had consumed refrigerant.

[00:05:51] Apparently, in an effort to cool off permanently.

[00:05:55] He was taken to a hospital and survived.

[00:05:57] Thomas was arrested and charged in connection with Stephen's murder.

[00:06:01] The police also arrested a man who Thomas hired to set fire to the Nissan Ultima.

[00:06:06] When Kathleen was in jail waiting trial, she talked her mother Leslie into trying to hire a hitman

[00:06:12] to kill Stephen's mother Evelyn.

[00:06:15] Apparently, Kathleen was upset because Evelyn had been granted custody of Elizabeth.

[00:06:20] The police learned of the plot and sent an undercover officer in as the hitman.

[00:06:25] During a meeting at a mall, Leslie handed him $1,000 and was arrested a short time later.

[00:06:31] Both Kathleen and Leslie were charged in connection with this plot.

[00:06:35] In May of 2013, Kathleen pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy.

[00:06:41] She told the court that she had conspired with her father to murder Stephen.

[00:06:45] When Stephen dropped off Elizabeth on August 16, 2010, she told him he needed to pick up some tools in the basement.

[00:06:53] The entrance to the basement was at the rear of the house.

[00:06:56] When Stephen walked back there, Thomas beat him with a crowbar-like tool and strangled him with a rope.

[00:07:03] Thomas put Stephen's body in the trunk of the Nissan and eventually paid someone to set the car on fire.

[00:07:10] Kathleen received a total of 58 years in prison.

[00:07:13] As if that wasn't bad enough, her teaching certificate had been revoked.

[00:07:18] She will be eligible for parole in the year 2057 at the age of 83.

[00:07:23] Kathleen had buyer's remorse as far as her plea bargain and unsuccessfully attempted to withdraw her guilty plea.

[00:07:31] I guess prison wasn't as pleasant as she imagined, especially without a teaching certificate.

[00:07:37] Kathleen's father Thomas pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy to commit arson.

[00:07:41] He received a sentence of 45 years in prison.

[00:07:44] He could be released as early as 2040 at the age of 94.

[00:07:49] Kathleen's mother Leslie pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and received a sentence of just seven years.

[00:07:55] She was released in less than four years.

[00:07:58] I'm moving to my analysis.

[00:08:00] The romantic relationship between Stephen and Kathleen seemed to be productive and loving around the time they married.

[00:08:07] People thought they would be together for a long time and be happy.

[00:08:11] There was no indication that disaster would strike.

[00:08:14] They were both eager to start a family. Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

[00:08:20] After their daughter Elizabeth was born, Kathleen's behavior completely changed.

[00:08:25] Even her energy was focused on her daughter and any affection in her relationship with her husband vanished.

[00:08:31] She became aggressive, critical, impatient and obsessed.

[00:08:36] When Stephen would try to help care for Elizabeth, he would find himself being screamed at and demeaned by Kathleen.

[00:08:43] She even put a rule in place stating that Stephen was not allowed to hold his daughter for the first six months of her life.

[00:08:50] He was made to feel dangerous and incompetent.

[00:08:54] The situation was only made worse by the behavior of Kathleen's parents, Thomas and Leslie, who lived right across the street from the young couple.

[00:09:02] They owned the house that Kathleen and Stephen lived in and would come by unannounced all the time.

[00:09:08] Stephen could not get away from them.

[00:09:10] They would not respect the boundaries that Stephen tried to put in place.

[00:09:14] Believing it was the only way to spend more time with his daughter, Stephen separated from Kathleen.

[00:09:20] His strategy did not work his plan.

[00:09:22] During his scheduled visitation with Elizabeth, Kathleen would call him on the phone multiple times to harass him.

[00:09:29] She would obsess about every detail of the care he was providing and leave him long lists of things that he needed to do when Elizabeth was with him.

[00:09:38] Even separated from Kathleen, Stephen did not find any peace.

[00:09:42] In an effort to showcase the mistreatment that Kathleen was delivering, Stephen saved some of her hostile voice messages.

[00:09:50] In one message, Kathleen said, quote, and I don't give a blank what you think.

[00:09:54] You're right. My way or the highway.

[00:09:57] Like whole unquote.

[00:09:59] The arrangement with financially assisting Stephen so they could all move to Florida was nothing more than a ruse.

[00:10:05] Kathleen and Thomas wanted to keep Stephen content, so he would not take precautions as they plotted to murder him.

[00:10:13] Stephen did not have any way to prevent his death.

[00:10:16] No one would have thought that Kathleen and Thomas would take things that far.

[00:10:22] Even after being arrested for the murder that she participated in, Kathleen was not done wreaking havoc and destroying people's lives.

[00:10:30] She recruited her mother to hire a hitman to kill Evelyn, even though that would not help Kathleen's criminal case whatsoever.

[00:10:38] It would only make things much worse for her.

[00:10:40] Kathleen was not trying to get out of prison with this move.

[00:10:43] She was simply trying to stop Stephen's mother from raising Elizabeth.

[00:10:48] Even at this point, facing life in prison, Kathleen was still trying to control the situation.

[00:10:54] The obsession about her daughter was raging.

[00:10:58] What dynamics could have led Kathleen and her family to this dark place?

[00:11:02] This is just a theory, my opinion.

[00:11:05] Kathleen was self-centered, irresponsible, impulsive, sadistic, vindictive, obsessive, petty, grandiose, envious, possessive, cold, cowess, arrogant, remorseless, aggressive, and had a massive sense of entitlement.

[00:11:21] Growing up, she never became independent from her parents.

[00:11:25] Kathleen was needy and unwilling to break free.

[00:11:28] Her parents only fueled this mentality as they vicariously lived through her.

[00:11:34] They desired to protect her and make her happy no matter what the cost.

[00:11:38] Even to the point of having Kathleen live across the street from them in a house they owned.

[00:11:44] Kathleen would permit them to come over unannounced because that's what she wanted.

[00:11:49] The family was enmeshed.

[00:11:51] No one had their own individual identity.

[00:11:54] When Elizabeth was born, they saw an opportunity to add another member to the disturbing dynamic.

[00:12:01] They won a complete control over Elizabeth and did not want to share her with anyone, including her father, Stephen.

[00:12:07] There was even this plan to run off to Florida and live together as a happy family.

[00:12:12] Because of the boundary crossing behavior and the belief that they were functioning as one unit,

[00:12:17] it was easy for the family members to share grievances.

[00:12:21] Looking outward to find the source of their pain, they identified Stephen.

[00:12:26] They failed to look inward and recognize how they were actually causing the problem.

[00:12:31] Stephen became the enemy and was a threat to their one big happy family dynamic.

[00:12:37] Unable to navigate her desires through peaceful means, Kathleen ran to her father to take care of Stephen permanently.

[00:12:44] It doesn't appear as though Kathleen's mother Leslie had anything to do with Stephen's murder.

[00:12:49] But after Kathleen went to jail, the family's options were limited.

[00:12:54] When trying to convince her to hire a hitman, Kathleen told Leslie that she had to do her part.

[00:13:00] This further supports the theory that they viewed themselves as a team and it showcases Kathleen's manipulative nature.

[00:13:09] She wasn't going to be happy until her entire family was in prison with her.

[00:13:14] Now moving to my final thoughts.

[00:13:16] When young couples get married, it's not unusual that they look to their parents for support.

[00:13:21] This type of help is fine, but it's important to maintain boundaries.

[00:13:25] Marriage depends on a transition into a new family dynamic.

[00:13:29] It demands a recognition of change.

[00:13:32] If spouses hold onto their parents instead of accepting that life moves on,

[00:13:37] they may find themselves in a nightmare worse than living in New Jersey.

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